10MP: Education system to create First World talent

KUALA LUMPUR: The current education system will be revamped under the 10th Malaysian Plan (10MP) in line with the government's move to create a first world talent base.
According to the 10MP report, this is part of the integrated human capital and talent development framework that the government will adopt to nurture and develop Malaysians cross their entire life cycle, from early childhood education until their adult working lives. Under the framework, the government also plans to raise the skills of Malaysians to increase their employability, besides reforming the labour market to transform Malaysia into a high-income nation.
On the revamping of the education system to significantly improve student performance, four strategies will be adopted, that is, ensuring every child can succeed, holding schools accountable for changes in student outcomes, investing in great leaders for every school, besides attracting and developing top talents in the teaching profession.
Under the 10MP, a new curriculum for primary and secondary schools will be introduced with the Standard Primary School Curriculum replacing the Integrated Primary School Curriculum next year, and this is to be followed by a new curriculum for secondary schools. The new curriculum will incorporate the principles of 1Malaysia in the pedagogical approach to deliver education and also to include sports as a subject beginning next year under the "1Student, 1Sports" policy.
In ensuring that every child can succeed, the government will increase the focus on improving and expanding adoption of early childhood education to provide more children in Malaysia with a better head-start. With more children ready to enter school at a younger age with the implementation of the early childhood development and pre-school programme, Permata, the entry age for schooling will be lowered from six years old to five years old in line with many developed countries. It will be rolled-out in stages and will begin with schools in rural and plantation areas, particularly in schools that are under-utilised allowing the students to benefit from an earlier head-start to their education.
The Permata programme, the early childhood development programme for children aged four and below, will be placed under the preview of the Education Ministry by next year in the move to improve co-ordination and integration with the formal education system. A total of 181 Permata centres will be established throughout the country with an allocation of RM36 million under the 10MP. The government also aims to increase pre-school enrolment from 87 percent by 2012 to 92 percent in 2015, and at the same time improving the quality of pre-school education and an allocation of RM2 billion has been earmarked for this programme. The government will also provide incentives to private pre-school operators to accelerate the deployment of new pre-schools especially under-served rural areas. Under the incentives, a co-payment scheme to increase demand for pre-school education will be implemented during the 10MP whereby low income families will receive student fee assistance amounting to RM150 per month to enrol their four to five-year-old children into private pre-schools. Read more: 10MP: Education system to create First World talent http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/10MP_EducationsystemtocreateFirstWorldtalent/Article/#ixzz0rMu1xbqr